A focus group of 5 general education schoolteachers from one rural middle school in Hawaii was conducted to investigate their perspectives on the unintended effects of including students with learning disabilities. The general education teachers were asked how the inclusion of students with learning disabilities had impacted (a) their professional…

This study investigated the perspectives of high school students with learning disabilities on co-teaching. Two focus groups were conducted at two high schools in southern California, involving 10 students with learning disabilities. Guiding questions were used to seek students' perceptions on how participation in co-taught general education…

During the 1994-95 academic year a series of four focus groups were held to learn more about faculty attitudes toward computing and instructional technologies at the University of North Texas. This report assembles faculty quotes which represent group concerns about: (1) the reliability of the equipment and its technical support; (2) the…

Compared with other fields of study, engineering at the higher education level has the lowest proportion of women students. A review of the literature concerning models of retention and female identity formation indicates that increased mentorship, curriculum revision, enrichment programs, and career workshops have been tried in efforts to…

This paper presents the report of a University of Maryland focus group evaluating a seminar in teaching designed for undergraduate teaching fellows in engineering. The course's purpose was to provide the fellows the opportunity to apply teaching theory to practice. Focus groups were conducted in order to evaluate the course and the teaching…

The DATAWave is a bi-weekly publication of the Assessment Resource Office (ARO) at Eastern New Mexico University (ENMU). Its purpose is to inform the campus community and broader constituencies on assessment issues and practices at ENMU. The seven issues of winter and spring 1996 cover the following topics: (1) a preview of ARO activities,…

Through a series of focus group interviews, 63 students at George Mason University (Virginia) related their academic and student life experiences. The goal of the researchers was to find a means of reporting the findings in a way that retained the integrity of the contextual data (student voices) and maximized audience impact. Three ways of…

This book presents a wide array of sophisticated problem-solving tools and shows how to use them in a humanizing way that involves all stakeholders in the process. Chapter 1 develops the rationale for educational stakeholders to consider quality tools. Chapter 2 highlights three quality group-process tools--brainstorming, the nominal group…

The nine-volume Survey Kit is designed to help readers prepare and conduct surveys and become better users of survey results. All the books in the series contain instructional objectives, exercises and answers, examples of surveys in use, illustrations of survey questions, guidelines for action, checklists of "dos and don'ts," and…

This study explores, from a critical-theory perspective, the relationship of power among stakeholders in either a mandated or voluntary elementary-school-site decision-making body (SSDMB). The purpose is to describe, explain, and clarify complexities regarding the influence exerted by parents on the decision-making process in two selected…

In response to the need for more qualified primary school teachers in Lesotho, the Lesotho College of Education (LCE) introduced the Distance Teacher Education Programme (DT EP), an in-service training programme for unqualified and underqualified teachers. As part of the curriculum in this programme, the more than 1 200 student teachers who were…

In an effort to gauge receptiveness to Achieving the Dream, a major initiative to close achievement gaps at the nation's community colleges, the authors chose three participating colleges for an exploratory study. In each of the three communities, they conducted focus groups with relatively understudied stakeholders: full-time and adjunct faculty…

To explore whether teachers' attitudes toward pay for performance are the result of experience or socialization, or whether teachers are already predisposed to prefer pay systems not based on performance, and whether some forms of performance pay might be preferred to others, a study was conducted of the pay system preferences of students…

This research had the following four inter-related purposes: (1) to identify and clarify the distinctions between learning styles, preferences and strategies of students, and their practical application to vocational education and training (VET) learning environments; (2) to identify the extent to which the VET sector takes account of preferred…

This study assessed the degree of enthusiasm for a home visits program at an elementary school in a middle-sized California town and determined the extent to which the home visits improved students academic and behavioral performance as a result of improving parental involvement in students school life. Participating in the study were 200 parents,…